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Movies Forum Index » Movie Reviews Forum » Review: WALL-E (2008)...
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| Mark R. Leeper... |
 Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:19 pm |
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WALL-E
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Pixar Animation is known for making good
kids' films that even adults can enjoy. But now
they really have crossed over the line to make an
adult film that even kids can enjoy. WALL-E is a
light fun comedy set against a very grim background.
This film has a lot more message than just "have a
good time." It is all about some serious problems
our world is facing. Under the laughs and the
humanized robots this is a serious science fiction
film and well above average for the genre. Rating:
high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
Spoiler Warning: There are minor plot spoilers in this review.
Pixar makes great, cute animated films. Their process does not
lend itself to making realistic human images so they tell stories
about toys, and insects, and fish. And these are good family
films in the sense that they are aimed at the kids, but the
adults really will have a good time also. With WALL-E for the
first time I think they started making good family films in the
sense that it is aimed at the adults, but the children can enjoy
it also. WALL-E has nice robots with real personalities that
kids and adults will respond well to. But rather than the little
morals to the stories that their previous films have had for
those looking for morals, this film has serious messages. The
messages are wrapped in a nice animated film, but they can hardly
be missed. And they are a dark core to this pleasant film.
The main character is WALL-E. He is a servo-mechanism that was
left behind to clean up the environment when all (surviving)
humans left the earth to go to a utopian resort ship. This ship
looks like it will give the humans an ideal hedonistic life while
back on Earth machines try to make the destroyed world livable
again. It should be noted that now, seven hundred years later,
the entire surviving human race is just a few thousand people.
The film glosses over what happened to billions of other humans,
but it is suspected they all died from something very nasty on
Earth. The affable robots distract the viewer from asking what
really happened to create this hellish future Earth. We are led
to assume that the giant corporations like the fictional
WalMart-like Buy & Large ended up owning and destroying our
planet. Meanwhile the remaining humans are pampered on the
Axiom, a ship deep in space that has become dangerously
comfortable. Humans have become fleshy eating machines, obtuse
and obese, who have as a race voluntarily given up the ability to
walk. They get their nutrition from what look like 7-Eleven
cups. But that is the back-story. We see little of it and its
grimness is not where the emphasis lies.
We focus on WALL-E, a likable earthbound clean-up robot whose
usually wordless antics echo the antics of silent screen humor.
He runs about his little home area picking up trash, compacting
it into building blocks, and building what looks like a large
pavilion out of them. In his spare time he watches and loves one
old human movie, HELLO DOLLY! His only friend is a sociable
cockroach.
Then one day a spaceship lands and drops off an egg-like robotic
pod. Like Robinson Crusoe surveying the cannibals on his island,
WALL-E cautiously spies on the pod. After a somewhat shaky start
in which the pod tried to destroy WALL-E multiple times, the two
become friends. WALL-E has not had a friend larger than an
insect in hundreds of years. The two become fast friends--"fast"
in the sense of "over too quickly." Eva, as the pod is named,
has found something important and has to return to her point of
origin. WALL-E stows a ride and finds himself on the resort ship
Axiom where in spite of the original plan it is really the robots
that have all the power. A fair chunk of the film--too much
really--is just chase around the charming but sinister starship
Axiom.
Science fiction fans will find the film is informed by a good
knowledge of the genre. I found myself reminded not just of
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (though there are obvious allusions to that
film) there are echoes of the writings of Clifford Simak and
Robert Heinlein. There are also echoes of the film TITANIC,
though physically they do not make sense. In written form WALL-E
would have made a very decent 1950s science fiction story. It
may be the best new science fiction film of 2008. I will not go
into detail but the end-credits are one more very creative aspect
of the film.
Pixar gives a light treatment to some very heavy ideas and has
made a film that the adults should appreciate even more than the
kids who see it do. While the kids have a good time, the adults
may find that this is a film with several serious messages. It
is ironic that Pixar has made a film warning us about large
corporations, and it is being released by industry giant Walt
Disney Pictures. I rate WALL-E a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale
or 8/10.
Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/>
While I am talking about good fantasy films from Pixar, PRESTO (a
short animated film that runs with WALL-E) is both very funny and
a film with a fun fantasy premise, expanding around an idea that
would have been a quick gag in Looney Tunes. Together WALL-E and
PRESTO make a package that returns a lot for the price of
admission.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper at (no spam) optonline.net
Copyright 2008 Mark R. Leeper |
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